Apartments Near UConn In Storrs Sell For $16 Million

The new Storrs Center development near the University of Connecticut is attracting a lot of attention, particularly for the strong demand for the apartments that are part of the project.

But investors haven't lost interest in other apartment complexes near the university's sprawling campus.

More than 200 apartments in five complexes near the campus marketed to students have been purchased for $16.1 million by investors who own and manage rental units elsewhere in New England.

Storrs Acquisition LLC — a joint venture of Mount Holyoke Management LLC in Holyoke, Mass. — purchased the 231 apartments that were once part of larger portfolio of apartments owned by Dutch insurer ING.

ING acquired the apartments in 2006. Several years later, ING decided to close down the real estate fund that had invested in the Storrs complexes as well as others in the state, asking their lenders to take over the properties.

The lenders subsequently sold the mortgages. Resource Real Estate Inc. of Philadephia, which invests in distressed properties and later sells them, bought the mortgages to the five complexes and assumed ownership in 2011.

Hartford-based Chozick Realty represented the seller in the transaction and procured the buyer.